26th North Carolina Group
Witness Trees #05 and #06
A white oak – a possible witness – stands 7 feet to the right of the new monument to the 26th North Carolina; another 7 feet to the right stands the very slow growing hickory witness tree #05. To the left of the monument, about 10 feet away and slightly down the incline, stands the distinctive white oak witness tree #06.
It is January, 1946, deep in the heart of winter: a car passing through Herbst Woods drives off of Stone Avenue and crashes into the tablet describing the movements of Confederate Brig. Gen. James Archer’s brigade on the morning of 1 July 1863, before careening down the hill beyond. The National Park Service sends a photographer to the scene to record the accident.
The happy result of this incident is the capturing of three large trees near the fallen monument, and next to the 26th North Carolina monument, which was erected in 1988 (see Figure 1 below). The growth of two of these trees – numbers #05 and #06 – has been calculated to be so slow, that we can confidently declare them to be witness trees.
How to Find These Trees
From Route 30 (the Chambersburg Pike), turn onto Stone Avenue, which is adjacent to the Park Service Comfort Station. Drive into the woods, and park near the Archer and 26th North Carolina Monuments. The witness trees stand on either side of the 26th North Carolina monument.
What These Trees Witnessed
1 July 1863, afternoon: the Union’s Iron Brigade, having driven Brig. Gen. James Archer’s Confederates out of the woods in the morning, have formed a line that roughly parallels Stone Avenue, facing west (the regimental monuments along the road roughly indicate their locations). It was now the job of Confederate Brig. Gen. James Pettigrew’s large, all-North Carolina brigade, to drive the Federals out of Herbst Woods.
These trees witnessed the battle that was about to erupt between two of the toughest outfits on the field this day.
The 26th North Carolina – a large regiment of 900 men – crossed Willoughby Run around 2:30 pm, and climbed the hill directly into the waiting guns of the 24th Michigan. The fight between the two regiments was amongst the most desperate and deadly in the entire Battle of Gettysburg. Between the two regiments, two dozen men who carried regimental colors were shot down. The 26th North Carolina saw 2/3 of its men shot down in the fight, and its commander, Col. Henry Burgwyn, killed. Between the morning and afternoon’s fighting, the 24th Michigan suffered 80% casualties, including the wounding its commander, Col. Henry Morrow.
In the end, there were too many Confederates to handle, and the men in blue would be forced back and eventually out of Herbst Woods, retreating all the way back to Seminary Ridge.
Witness Tree 05
Major Egbert A. Ross (11th NC, CSA) Witness Tree
Three trees – 2 white oaks and a hickory – were witness to a wacky car accident in 1946. The car plowed into and knocked over the tablet dedicated to the brigade of Brig. Gen. James Archer, before rolling further down the hill. Tree #05 is a witness pignut hickory tree, and #06 is a witness white oak. The third tree may be a witness tree, but it is too close to say with any certainty. National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park, Museum Collection, GETT #41135; text boxes added by author.
Tree Species: pignut hickory
Circumference 2022: 55”
Diameter: 17.5”
Calculated Average Growth Rate: 13-16 years / inch diameter
Estimated age: 220-250+ years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 5.5-7”
GPS: 39.834767N, 77.254517W
Major Egbert A. Ross (1842-1863)
This hickory tree has been growing at a glacial pace, taking well over a decade to grow each inch of diameter for the past century – and this was during a period of time when it was barely in competition for sun and soil, ever since the trees had been cleared away and the road carved out from the area in front of it! This growth rate is quite consistent, though, with many of the hickories around the battlefield of the same species. It was probably half a foot in diameter as the battle for Herbst Woods swirled around it in 1863, and is easily at least two centuries old.
The tablet to Brig. Gen. James Archer can be seen just to the north of Witness Tree #05.
This witness tree is named for the 11th North Carolina’s Major Egbert A. Ross, who was killed in the 11th’s fight against the Iron Brigade on the afternoon of 1 July, 1863.
Born in 1842, Ross joined the “Charlotte Grays”, a North Carolina militia group in 1861, as the Civil War was winding up, and was elected captain. The Grays then joined the Confederate army as a 6-month unit (Company C, 1st North Carolina), and fought at Big Bethel in June 1861, a month before the Battle of First Manassas.
After the 1st North Carolina disbanded in November 1861, Ross reenlisted with other members of the “Grays” as Company A of the 11th North Carolina, of which Ross was once again elected captain. The 11th served in southeast Virginia until January 1863, when James Pettigrew’s brigade, to which the 11th belonged, joined the Army of Northern Virginia. In the meantime, Ross had been promoted to major.
On July 1, Pettigrew’s Tarheels drove the Iron Brigade out of Herbst Woods, though at great cost. Amongst those to lose their lives today was Major Ross, who was shot through the right side with grape shot. He died four hours later, and was buried on the field. His body was later recovered, and reinterred in Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte, NC. (1)
You may read more about Major Ross and the history of the 11th North Carolina Volunteers here.
(1) Core, Dublin. Tarheel Faces website. Major Egbert A. Ross. Retrieved January 23, 2024: https://tarheelfaces.omeka.net/items/show/23.
Witness Tree 06
Lt. Col. John R. Lane (26th NC, CSA) Witness Tree
Witness Tree #06: the distinctive pair of humps are vestiges of a pair of large branches that broke off a century or more ago. The path of Willoughby Run can just be traced at the bottom of the valley.
Tree Species: white oak
Circumference 2022: 76”
Diameter: 24.2”
Calculated Average Growth Rate: 9.0 years / inch diameter
Estimated age: 200-210 years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 6”
GPS: 39.834695N, 77.254609W
This white oak witness tree is a slow grower, though its growth rate of about 9 years to grow each inch of diameter is consistent with other trees of this species in the Herbst Woods. It is likely around two centuries old, and its diameter at the time of the battle in 1863 was likely half a foot.
Colonel John R. Lane (1835-1908). Library of Congress.
Witness Tree #06 is named for Lt. Col. John R. Lane of the 26th North Carolina. Born in 1835 in Chatham County, NC, Lane enlisted in the Confederate army in May 1861 as part of the “Chatham Boys”, which was designated Company G of the 26th North Carolina Volunteers. Lane was wounded at least five times throughout the war, two times of which his injuries were thought to be mortal.
Lane was appointed corporal upon the regiment’s formation, and was elected captain soon after. In 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. When the 26th’s Colonel Henry Burgwyn was mortally wounded on 1 July 1863 in the Herbst Woods at Gettysburg, Lane took charge of the regiment, which he led until hostilities ceased in 1865.
On McPherson’s Ridge that morning, Lane himself was shot through the neck, and was expected to die – he could not even eat or drink for 9 days afterwards. However, he did recover, and returned to the 26th as colonel in just a few months.
After the war, Lane returned to Chatham County, where he prospered as a merchant and cotton gin operator. He was married in 1866, and had two children. At a reunion in Gettysburg, he met and befriended the man who shot him – one Charles McConnell of Chicago – on McPherson’s Ridge. Lane died in 1908, and was buried in Bear Creek, NC. (2)
(2) Wilson, Clyde. NCpedia website. Lane, John Randolph. 1991. Retrieved January 23, 2024: Lane, John Randolph | NCpedia.
National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park, Museum Collection, GETT #41135.
Photo of the accident from down the slope; the monument to the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry can just be discerned just below the photograph’s top right corner. National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park, Museum Collection, GETT #41135.